How do Ukrainians
feel in Konstanz?

In 2022, the Zukunftskolleg established Visiting Fellowships for early career researchers in Ukraine threatened by the current war (“scholars at risk”). Yeliena Kovalska is one of 12 Visiting Fellows that joined the Zukunftskolleg. Originally at the Department of Methodology and Methods of Sociological Research at the Faculty of Sociology at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in Ukraine, Yeliena has been a fellow at the Zukunftskolleg since June 2022, affiliated with the Department of History and Sociology. 

During her time in Konstanz, she has been studying the living conditions, employment, lifestyle, leisure time, wellbeing and future plans of forced migrants from Ukraine in Germany, using the example of the City of Konstanz. Her project “The Status Characteristics and Peculiarities of Accommodation of Ukrainian War Refugees in Germany (Konstanz)” aims to answer six questions: (1) How has the type of employment of Ukrainian refugees changed; (2) How has general wellbeing changed; (3) What were the main problems faced by Ukrainian refugees in Germany; (4) Features of the life of Ukrainian refugees; and (5) Plans for further stay in Germany or return to Ukraine.

The situation of Ukrainian refugees in Germany, especially their psychological state, living conditions, employment, life, leisure, wellbeing and plans for the future, remains little studied in contrast to studies in Poland or other countries. Therefore, Yeliena’s study aimed to identify the peculiarities of the situation of Ukrainian refugees in Germany (based on the example of the City of Konstanz and the surrounding area), as well as their social status and plans for the future. 

To conduct her study, Yeliena used an online survey with a self-completion questionnaire. Respondents were interviewed using a formalized questionnaire on the LimeSurvey online platform. In addition, to implement a quantitative study, participants in the Telegram group “Help Ukraine – Konstanz”, including 1,886 participants, were also interviewed. The study was implemented between 6 and 28 October 2022. The response led to a large number of answers to the open questions regarding personal problems, experiences or questions related to life in Germany, although this question was optional and the last one on the questionnaire. Moreover, respondents provided important feedback with detailed answers. 114 questionnaires out of 376 provided answers to the open questions. 

Given the sensitivity of the research topic, it was decided at the preparatory stage of the research to obtain support from one of the largest social organizations helping refugees in Germany – Caritas. The support of the research by such an organization increased trust in the survey and encouraged respondents to give sincere answers. As a result of the negotiation process (2 months), official permission was obtained for the use of the Caritas logo in the questionnaire, and volunteers supported the recruiting process.  

At the pre-test stage of the questionnaire, Yeliena started with a high number of sensitive questions about income, financial situation and housing conditions before the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war. However, because respondents reacted very negatively to these questions because of memories of losing their jobs, property and a possible decrease in status in Ukraine, she decided to reject them. 

In addition to Ukrainian refugees in Konstanz, interviewees included: a) persons registered and living in satellite cities whose leisure practices are closely related to the City of Konstanz; b) persons who had been in Konstanz but have already left for Ukraine or other countries; c) persons who only plan to move (to a refugee camp or to family/friends). 

For Yeliena and her project, studying all these categories made it possible to obtain deeper qualitative knowledge about the peculiarities of the stay of Ukrainians in forced migration in Germany.

The ratio of females and males among the survey participants was 83 to 17 percent. This is due to the fact that men aged 18 to 60 were prohibited from leaving the country according to Ukrainian military law. An exception applied to men with more than three minor children, single fathers with young children and children with disabilities, as well as men not fit to serve in the army for medical reasons.

Most Ukrainian refugees were between the age of 26 and 35 (23.6 percent), 36 to 45 (41.4 percent) and 46 to 55 (15.7 percent) years. This distribution was more or less normal, as these refugees in Germany are mostly women of working age with minor children and no grandchildren, which allows them to actively solve issues in everyday life and the time to participate in the study.

21.5 percent were at the first stage of refugee resettlement (a refugee camp), 19 percent were staying in hostels and 14.8 percent lived with German families, relatives or friends – all categories are characterized as “temporary housing” and required further relocation to permanent housing (55.3 percent). Many Ukrainians were looking for housing on their own or through social and city services.

Regarding difficulties finding housing, most respondents indicated that they could not find housing at all (58.5 percent), some found only offers that were too expensive (35 percent), some were refused by landlords due to lack of permanent employment, income or rental history in Germany (24.4 percent), and some were refused housing because they had pet animals (6 percent). Thus, Ukrainian refugees in the Konstanz area found themselves in a difficult situation due to the inability to find a permanent place of residence.

27 percent of Ukrainian refugees lived with children under 6 years of age and 45 percent with children from 7 to 16 years of age. Two thirds of the respondents said that they were not provided with nursery/pre-school places for their children.

Interestingly, with 57 percent there were more people with a higher level of education than ever before among war refugees in Germany, and 4.3 percent even had an academic degree, as well as being professionals (30.7 percent). At that moment, 12.4 percent of Ukrainian refugees were employed in the Konstanz region, of which only 3.9 percent were employed in their special field.

Furthermore, language barriers also posed some difficulties for the Ukrainian refugees in Konstanz. Mostly, the level of English language proficiency was Level A2 and above (38.2 percent), compared to 11.8 percent for German language proficiency at a similar level.

Concerning the material situation of the respondents, people with above-average incomes had somewhat lowered their social status. This is due to the fact that about 81 percent of Ukrainian refugees in Konstanz were only drawing unemployment benefit. This covers only basic necessities. There was also a decrease in the level of answers to “Difficult to answer” from 22 to 7 percent. This may be because in Germany it has become easier for Ukrainian refugees to determine their material status, or there is no need to hide unofficial income due to its absence.

Despite the downward trend in social status, 45 percent of Ukrainian refugees in the Konstanz region said they would like to stay in Germany indefinitely.

For Yeliena, the main methodological result of her study was the active completion of an open question in a third of the questionnaires, and revealing, as a result of the pre-test, a high level of sensitivity among Ukrainian refugees towards questions about income, financial situation and housing conditions before the start of the war. The results of the analysis of the open questions formed the basis for additional research by qualitative methods.

The main problems for Ukrainian refugees in Konstanz were finding permanent housing and getting a place in a nursery/pre-school. Both problems are typical for the region, having existed for many years, and were only exacerbated by the migration crisis.

Plans for further stay in Germany or return to Ukraine deserve special attention – for example, 45 percent of respondents indicated that they plan to stay in Germany indefinitely. This information also brings new challenges for the country’s migration policy and requires further discussion.

The purpose of Yeliena’s study, among other things, was to promote cooperation between the government, social organizations and representatives of Ukrainian refugees on the basis of reliable data from a survey of Ukrainian refugees on the current situation.

In addition, in the spring of 2023 Yeliena was awarded a MSCA4 (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions) Ukraine Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. During the MSCA4Ukraine Fellowship of one year, Yeliena will continue her research project which she started during her Visiting Fellowship at the Zukunftskolleg: “Use of factorial survey design to determine the significance of personal social status characteristics”, supervised by Professor Thomas Hinz, Chair of Empirical Social Research with a Focus on Survey Research at the University of Konstanz.

“Since I became part of the Zukunftskolleg, I have received a lot of support and help in adapting to the new German academic reality, which was and still is very challenging for me,” says Yeliena. “I still cannot believe that in such a short time I was able to receive this prestigious grant. Many thanks to the whole team of the Zukunftskolleg!”